


5 Times Dean's Friends Thought He Was Single

by SeashellDestihell



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5+1 Things, Engineer Dean Winchester, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Established Relationship, M/M, Minor Charlie Bradbury/Gilda, Minor Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester, Oblivious Sam Winchester, Professor Castiel, a parade of dean/other suggested pairing but none of them pan out into anything, oblivious everyone, past mechanic Dean mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 01:10:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10753608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeashellDestihell/pseuds/SeashellDestihell
Summary: Dean Winchester has been happily dating his best friend, Castiel, for years. They even moved in together. So, of course Dean's friends know they're together, right? Right?





	5 Times Dean's Friends Thought He Was Single

1.

“Are you sure you can’t come tonight?” Dean wheedles for the tenth time since he started getting ready to go out. Castiel looks pointedly down at his pajamas then at the stack of ungraded exams in front of him. “Yeah, OK,” Dean sighs and fiddles with his tie one final time. “It’s just Sam’s been acting weird recently. He keeps giving Jess these _looks_ when he thinks I can’t see him; it’s giving me the creeps, man.” Castiel sighs and beckons Dean to him so he can adjust Dean’s collar so that it lies straight.

“Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe they have _news_ ,” Castiel stresses the final word suggestively and Dean might actually have stopped breathing for a second.

“Holy shit,” he whispers. “Holy shit, _Cas_. Are we gonna be uncles?!” Castiel shrugs his shoulders, but he’s smiling almost as widely as Dean. “Babe, you should _definitely_ be there if they’re going to announce that we’re going to be uncles—why the hell aren’t you getting dressed!?”  Castiel laughs, but makes no move to stand.

“Dean, for the last time, your brother specifically wanted to speak to you tonight, not me. If there is a niece or nephew in our future, I’ll know a few hours after you do. That’s still plenty of notice.” Dean sighs before leaning down to press a kiss to Castiel’s forehead.

“Fine, but I’m still gonna clock him if he tells me we’re gonna be uncles without you there.” Castiel chuckles and tilts his face up to press his lips to Dean’s.

“Thank you for defending my honor,” he says mock seriously. “Now please leave so I can start grading these exams.”

“Alright! Alright! I’m out the door. Don’t miss me too much,” Dean calls over his shoulder.  Castiel listens to the front door open and shut and smiles to himself.

“I always do.”

~ ~

“How was dinner?” Castiel mumbles half into his pillow.

“Shit,” Dean hisses and stumbles into the wall trying to take off his socks. “I was trying not to wake you; go back to bed, babe.” Castiel unsticks his face from his pillow to squint at Dean in the muted light coming from the hallway. Dean catches him looking and sighs. He sits down on the bed and reaches over to run a hand through Castiel’s hair. “It was fine. Kind of let down after, you know, what we talked about today. He just wanted to introduce me to his new paralegal, Lisa something. Fucking weird, right? Who gives a shit?” Castiel grumbles in dissatisfaction and settles back under the covers. Dean stays a minute longer to gaze lovingly at his boyfriend before getting up to finish getting ready for bed.

 

2.

Dean’s at home enjoying his day off by marathoning the past season of Dr. Sexy before the premier tonight and snapchatting the most hilarious and "shocking" bits to Cas, when Bobby calls. He mutes the TV to answer.

“Hey, Bobby, what’s up?”

“Dean, you at home, boy?” Bobby asks, brusque as usual.

“Yeah, Bobby, you know I work from home on Mondays.” Right “work.” Sometimes Dean really loves his job. Being his own boss has its perks, including the fact that he can call it a day after putting in an hour at the drafting table.

“Well get your ass into the shop,” Bobby demands then pauses, seeming to realize Dean hasn’t worked for Bobby since he was twenty-one and Bobby can’t order him around anymore, “if, uh, if you got a minute.” There’s a brief pause over the line after that where it seems like Bobby might be holding something over the receiver and talking to someone else. Out of respect for his former boss, Dean doesn’t try to listen in, but he’s feeling more than a little lost and startled from the surprise conversation. “We, uh, we just got in a real nice car. ’67 Mustang, mint condition. Thought you might want to pop under the hood yourself.” Dean whistles and stands to make his way to his room to get dressed.

“Hell yeah I do,” he tells Bobby, setting the phone on the dresser to dig around in it until he pulls an old, tattered, garage shirt out to wear, “I’ll be there in twenty.” Dean throws on some jeans from the back of his closet and sends Cas a text to which he gets an immediate response.

To Cas:

  **Going to Bobby’s. Don’t know when I’ll be back. I’m DVRing the new episode and you better not watch without me.**

To Dean:

  _Of course not, my love. Have fun._

 ~ ~

“Did you miss me, babe?” Dean asks as he walks into the kitchen later that night. Castiel snorts from his position at the stove, heating canned soup.

“Yes, I had to make my own dinner,” he teases Dean with a smirk which falls promptly off his face when Dean encircles his waist from behind. “Ugh, I do not miss you coming home smelling like that every day. Please go shower.” Dean presses a kiss to the side of Castiel’s neck instead.

“You can’t lie to me, Cas, I know you love the scent of motor oil. It really gets your engine goin—” Dean cuts off with a laugh when Castiel elbows him in the gut. “What? You walked right into that!”

“Go fucking shower, Dean Winchester,” Castiel laughs, shoving his boyfriend away.

“Alright! Alright!” Dean presses a final kiss to the back of Cas’ neck and darts away before Castiel can swat at him again. “If you want me naked so badly, all you had to do was ask!” Dean leaves the kitchen and heads down the hall to the bathroom. Castiel turns off the stove and as he’s passing the hallway on his way to the cabinet for bowls, he sees that Dean has thrown his clothes off and left them all over the hallway floor. Castiel sighs. Most people wouldn’t believe it, but Dean is usually the neater one in their relationship. Occasionally he does things like this, however, just to get to Cas. Castiel abandons his search for dishes and makes his way down the hall to pick up after his boyfriend. He knows Dean is probably trying to lure Castiel into the shower with him, but Castiel won’t be swayed today. He still has a stack of journal entries waiting to be graded while he eats and he’s hoping to get them done before Dean gets out and insists they watch Dr. Sexy. Not that Castiel really minds. Anything that makes Dean that happy gets a pass in his—

Castiel stops in the middle of the hallway.

A slip of paper had tumbled out of Dean’s shirt pocket when Castiel picked it up. He had assumed it was a receipt, and it is, or at least it had been at some point, but more importantly when he picks it up and examines it, Castiel finds a phone number scribbled on it and the name “Aaron” above it. Castiel takes a deep, calming breath and swallows. He isn’t a particularly jealous person and he trusts Dean, but finding a strange man’s number in your boyfriend’s pocket is enough to make anyone a little nervous, he thinks. He isn’t going to jump to any conclusions, but he pockets the paper all the same.

When Dean gets out of the bathroom 15 minutes later, Castiel is in the living room with the TV on mute.

“Who’s Aaron?” Castiel asks before Dean can speak. He curses himself internally. _That was **not** “playing it cool,” Castiel._ He tries to play it off by not looking up from the papers he’d been reading when Dean walked in. As such he misses Dean’s frown, but he can hear it in his voice.

“Aaron? I met him today at Bobby’s, why? Did he call or something?” Castiel releases some of the tension in his shoulders. Dean isn’t hiding Aaron from him, then. That’s good.

“No. I found his number in your pocket and I was wondering if you needed it still,” Castiel tries to say as nonchalantly as possible. He darts his eyes toward Dean and scowls when he sees the smirk Dean isn’t even trying to hide.

“Oh?” He asks, sauntering into the room. “And what? Were you jealous?” Castiel scowls harder even as Dean situates himself between Castiel and the arm of the couch. Dean wraps his arms around Castiel’s middle and places a chaste kiss on Cas’ neck.

“I was not jealous.” Dean kisses him again.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you were. He was totally digging me,” Dean teases. Castiel freezes in his arms. “But I told him I was taken!” he insists and Castiel nods to himself.

“Was that before or after he gave you his number?” he tries not to sound bitter, but it seems like the majority of people who hit on Dean are the pushy types that can’t take no for an answer. Castiel often gets upset on Dean’s behalf more than his own, because he hates to see Dean’s boundaries not being respected.

“Before.” Dean noses at Cas’ jawline and slips his hands under Castiel’s T-shirt. “And I only took it because he backed off right away when I mentioned you.”

“Then why did he give it to you?” Castiel tries to hold onto at least a little bit of his annoyance, but it’s hard when Dean is doing everything in his power to make Cas comfortable.

“So we could talk about his car,” Dean tells him honestly, and Castiel feels the last of his uncertainty drain away. “She’s a real beauty, Cas, you should have seen her. Thing is he inherited her from his dead grandad and doesn’t know a thing about taking care of her. I couldn’t just walk away knowing that and not try to help.”

“Of course you couldn’t.”

“Just being a good Samaritan, Cas, you know me.” Castiel rolls his eyes. “Hey. C’mon. Let’s watch Dr. Sexy,” Dean offers. “I want to find out what happens to Dr. Piccolo.”

“She survives,” Cas deadpans, but leans over to grab the remote and the bowl of soup he’d poured when he heard Dean get out of the shower.

“Cas! Spoilers!”

 

3.

“It’ll be fun!” Jo knocks Dean’s shoulder with her bony one. “You haven’t been to the gun range in f-o-r-e-v-e-r. When was the last time we even hung out, just the two of us?” Dean glares down at his phone.  He had been hoping that Castiel would answer one of the five “Save me!” texts he’d sent, but no such luck.  Someone must have actually shown up to his office hours for once.

“Jesus, Jo, don’t you have to go once a month for work? Is that really what you want to do on your day off?” Jo shrugs her shoulders and downs the rest of her beer.

“Scared of a little challenge, Winchester?” she smirks at him and Dean can feel his hackles rise in response.

“OK,” he relents, “we’re going to go just so I can kick your ass. You’ll be sorry you ever challenged Dean Winchester.”

 ~ ~

“You’re home late,” Castiel murmurs from his spot on the couch among piles of graded and ungraded papers.

“I fucking love you,” Dean says reverently making Castiel look up in surprise. Dean watches as Castiel looks down at his tattered pajama bottoms and thick, reading glasses perched halfway down his nose before squinting back up at Dean.

“Really?” he asks, skeptically. “This is what does it for you?” Dean crosses into the living room and carefully sets the stacks of papers on the coffee table.

“Everything about you does it for me,” he says sincerely then swoops in to press his lips against Cas’.

“You’re in a mood,” Castiel teases, but hooks one hand around the back of Dean’s neck to drag him back into another kiss. “Where were you?” he murmurs against Dean’s lips when they part for air.

“Jo took me the shooting range with her partner. I think the guy might have been hitting on me,” Dean confesses and kisses Castiel again just because he can. 

“Wait,” Castiel pulls back to frown at Dean, “he was hitting on you? In front for Jo? And she didn’t say anything?”

“It wasn’t super blatant or anything—hell I might have been imagining it—but it got me thinking how fucking lucky I am to have you.” Castiel hums in pleasure and drags Dean back in for another kiss.

“I approve of this direction of thought,” he says earning a laugh from Dean.

“If you’d like to take this into the bedroom, Mr. Novak, I’d be happy to give you a demonstration of just how happy you make me.”

“By all means, Mr. Winchester, lead the way.”

 

4.

“You gotta come out tonight, brother,” Benny insists. Dean swallows his bite of sandwich before responding.

“It’s Friday, man,” he does not whine. It’s been a busy week and he hasn’t gotten to see Cas half as much as he’d like. Dean was kind of hoping he would be able to cuddle up with Cas and a pizza in front of a Dr. Sexy marathon today, but it’s not like he can tell Benny that or he’d never hear the end of it. It’s not like he can ask Cas if he wants to come, either. Castiel, for whatever reason, took an instant dislike to Dean’s coworker the first time they met and hasn’t come around since. He usually goes tight-lipped and cross at the mere mention of his name, so Dean does his best to not talk about the man more than strictly necessary around Cas.

“With this new project keeping you busy, I barely see you anymore, chief,” Benny cajoles and Dean sighs wearily already knowing he’s going to crack.

“Fine,” he sighs and winces when Benny claps him hard on the shoulder, “but only for an hour and then I’m going home. I’m fucking beat, dude.”

 ~ ~

Castiel has dinner in the oven when Dean walks through the door looking perplexed. 

“I was expecting you later,” Castiel says before he notes Dean’s expression. “What’s wrong?”

“I… don’t know, exactly?” Dean states. He presses a kiss to Castiel’s cheek, then makes a b-line for the fridge to crack open a beer. He brings one for Cas, too, when he settles into the seat next to him at their kitchen table.

“Dean?” Castiel prompts and Dean shakes his head as if to clear it.

“It’s probably nothing,” he sighs and take a gulp of beer. “I just didn’t know our friends had so many friends.” He chuckles at Castiel’s confused expression.

“It feels like all month everyone’s been introducing me to people,” Dean explains and drinks again, giving Castiel time to contemplate that thought. “Benny was hounding me all day at work to have a drink and hang out after. So I said I’d go for an hour, but as soon as we get there, he introduces me to his friend Nick and just like, fucks off! It’s was weird as shit, man.” Castiel sets his beer down abruptly causing Dean to startle. “What?  What’d I say?”

“Benny set you up at the bar with some guy and then just… left the two of you alone,” Castiel says slowly making Dean flush when he catches on.

“Fuck, Cas, no, not—not like that. C’mon. Benny wouldn’t—”

“Did this ‘Nick’ flirt with you?” Dean hesitates.

“I… I don’t know? I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve kind of been out of the game for a long time, babe. And I’m not exactly looking for that kind of thing.”

“But you said that Jo’s friend flirted with you last week,” Castiel presses. Dean runs a hand down is face and shrugs. “And Aaron before that.”

“Yeah? I guess?”

“Did Nick act similarly?” Dean rubs his eyes tiredly.

“I didn’t really stick around long enough—”

“ _Dean._ ”

“I mean _maybe_. But that’s a BIG maybe, Cas.”

“Benny’s never exactly been my biggest fan,” Castiel mutters under his breath and takes a long gulp of his beer.

“Wha—that doesn’t even make sense, though!” Dean finally sighs in exasperation. “Maybe you and Benny butt heads sometimes, but Jo loves you, Cas! So do Sam and Bobby! Why would they be trying to break us up? It has to be something else.” Dean finishes his beer and gets up to grab a new one. “I mean, even a fucking huge cosmic coincidence makes more sense than a nerdy sap like Sam trying to break us up. This is, like, True fucking Love right here.” Castiel’s expression softens at that, though Dean misses it with his head still in the fridge.

“Maybe you’re right,” Castiel muses, “it’s possible you’re just too pretty for your own good.” Castiel smiles satisfied when Dean’s head collides noisily with the shelf in the fridge.

“Oh har-dee-har-har. Fucking laugh it up over there, Casanova,” Dean grumbles to distract from the way his face as gone a particularly bright shade of red in embarrassment. Castiel presses a kiss to the side of Dean’s head on his way to shut off the timer before it rings.

“I love you anyway.”

 

5.

“Dean!” Charlie exclaims as soon as she opens the door. “And you brought Cas!”  Dean narrows his eyes at her, but he can’t be sure if her expression actually looks pained or if he’s projecting. “Well the more the merrier I always say. Let me take your coat, Cas.” They move into the house then and Dean catches Sam and Jess poking their heads into the hallway. He doesn’t know what to make of the fact that the look they share seems slightly panicked.

“Cas, you know everyone here I think. Um, Benny and Andrea, Sam and Jess (obviously), Jo and Anna, my girlfriend Gilda, and uh this… this is my coworker, Meg.” Dean watches as every person at the table smiles stiffly back at them. 

“Sam, Charlie, why don’t you guys help me get a chair for Cas from the kitchen?” Dean suggests, storming out of the room. He hears Sam and Charlie scramble to catch up with him. He turns on them as soon as the kitchen door is closed.

“What the fuck was that?!” he hisses. Charlie has the decency to look slightly ashamed, but Sam just crosses his arms and glares at Dean.

“As if you don’t know,” Sam says back, throwing Dean for a loop. “This is an intervention, Dean.” Dean reels back at that.

“An inter—what the hell are you talking about?” Dean looks between the stubborn set of Sam’s jaw and Charlies’ nervous hair twirling.

“Awkward,” she mumbles under her breath.

“We’re tired of seeing you moon over Cas, Dean.” Sam sighs. “If you’re not going to do anything about your feelings, then it’s time to move on.”

“Not gonna—what? WHAT?!” Charlie sighs, but when she looks at Dean, she just looks disappointed.

“I was really cheering for you guys,” she says like what the fuck?

“Am I crazy or are you guys telling me you don’t know that Cas and I are together?”

“Dean…” Sam is giving Dean his fucking puppy eyes like he thinks Dean is just _so sad._

“Are you fuckin—no you know what?” Dean storms out of the kitchen, Sam and Charlie hot on his heels. Cas is seated in what must have been Charlie’s vacated seat and obviously still pissed enough that he’s trying not the make eye contact with anyone.  Dean jerks Castiel’s seat away from the table and, much more gently, places hands on either side of Castiel’s face.  Dean raises his eyebrows in silent question to which Castiel merely smirks and tilts his head and then Dean is leaning in and kissing him. They start off gently, but at Sam’s insistence that they “don’t have to do this, c’mon” Dean crawls into Castiel’s lap and deepens the kiss. Castiel groans beneath him and settles his hands on Dean’s hips. Dean just barely registers the sound of chairs scraping against the floor above Castiel’s moans as he tilt’s Cas’ head back to kiss him deeper. Castiel, for his part, untucks Dean’s shirt from his pants so that he can sneak his hands under the material and scrape nails up Dean’s sides.

 

 

+1.

“I still don’t understand how no one knew we were dating,” Castiel grumbles. Jess giggles nervously.

“In mine and Charlie’s defense, we thought you guys were together, but Sam was really persuasive. We thought he had to know Dean best.” Jess smiles apologetically at Cas and Castiel smiles back since she’s the only one brave enough to make eye contact with him right now.

“Well this has been an embarrassing waste of time.” Dean claps Castiel on the knee and stands. “In case anyone is wondering: we’re probably going to have sex when we get home. I’m thinking maybe in the kitchen, but we’ll play it by ear. Just putting that out there.”

“Oh gross, Dean,” Sam scowls.  We get it; we don’t need a graphic play-by-play.”

“Apparently, you did though,” Dean responds. Sam groans. He’s never going to live this one down.


End file.
